Since getting feedback on my storybook "Too Many Sisters," I have been complimented on how enjoyable read-aloud books in rhyme are. So, I have been re-examining and re-imagining my first two books and re-doing them in rhyme.
This has been quite a project. We lived through the story events when the kids were young, and those events did not happen in "rhyme." But I thought to myself, if anyone can re-write history in rhyming couplets a songwriter should. I have had a lot of time to think about this as I have been serving my husband in his illness. I sit and rub his feet or wait around through his doctor appointments or sit with him while he sleeps in the hospital. So, I have learned to keep a pencil and a sketchbook handy.
This has been quite a project. We lived through the story events when the kids were young, and those events did not happen in "rhyme." But I thought to myself, if anyone can re-write history in rhyming couplets a songwriter should. I have had a lot of time to think about this as I have been serving my husband in his illness. I sit and rub his feet or wait around through his doctor appointments or sit with him while he sleeps in the hospital. So, I have learned to keep a pencil and a sketchbook handy.
But I am happy to say that I have now finished "Who Will Be My Friend?" a book about our daughter Katelyn when she was getting ready for Kindergarten. Fortunately, the drawings worked even though I had to reorder some of them to fit how the rhymes changed the flow of the story. And I have almost finished "Is This Cowboy Food?" a book about our middle son Matthew who needed to be convinced that all his meals were authentic cowboy food --- and then he would eat them. For that book, I have had to do a few new drawings and rework many of the others. Finding the time to devote to working on the computer has been challenging. It's coming along, but not done yet.
In the meantime, I wrote a story for my two youngest children per their request. "The Wonderful, Marvelous, Magic Bunk Bed." It is also in rhyme. When I showed it to my daughter she said that it was a very nice story but not about them. I explained that what they remembered doing in their childhoods was NOT suitable for a children's book. They told me horrible things --- about the time they got the kitchen knives and had fun throwing them at the wall from the top bunk. And about the time they pretended the floor was hot lava so they had to climb on all of the furniture to get around the room. And the memories of their dastardly deeds get worse from there! Still, I have been working on ideas for the drawings. I just don't want to draw scary things!
So, I am still re-working and re-imaging their story --- but it will be in rhyme.
So, I am still re-working and re-imaging their story --- but it will be in rhyme.
RSS Feed